Thursday, January 5, 2012

Tools going into retirement in my class

After some long and hard consideration, here are some tools from my class that have been forced to retire since the move to a more paperless environment and with adoption of new technology.

Stapler: The stapler used to be one of the most important parts of my life as a teacher. Students would line up and attach their work to the rubric and drop them on my desk. Every assignment would have the shiny piece of metal in the upper left hand corner. Sadly, for the stapler, there is nothing to staple in my class anymore. In class writing still happens, but I encourage students to use the paper clips. The paper clip only has a few months left before retirement, so I’m trying to get the most out of them. At any given time, I would have 3 or 4 staplers floating around the room so students could assemble their work. The stapler has been good to me, but it’s time to part ways.

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Hole puncher: The stapler was all about giving, but the hole puncher was about taking. For the assignments I would forget to hole punch at the copier, the hole puncher could be counted on to help the most organized of my students. Tirelessly popping out three little circles of paper was its only job and it did it well. I would like to say he will be missed, but that would be a lie. I like the extra desk space.

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The Document Camera : This guy has gone the way of the overhead machine. With the iPad2 and the Apple TV, there is nothing the Document Camera brings to the table. He sits at my desk with his head hanging down in disgrace. His stationary existence just doesn’t fit in with this mobile world. He was the most popular kid in my class for a couple of years, but now he is just another obsolete tool. I’m sure I can find a home for DC. Hopefully.

File Folders of Student Work: The days of holding onto a student’s work in a folder in the room are long gone. A remnant of a bygone era, the file folder has sputtered out like an athlete that stayed one season too long. Dropbox has replaced physical file folders and allows for quick and easy sharing of information. The blog has also replaced the need for paper assignments that would go into the folders as well. With nothing to place in the folders, the folders have opted for retirement.

The Filing Cabinet : With its long time companion the file walking off into the sunset, the filing cabinet sits in the corner as an icon to a time in education where a person could hold all the valuable information they needed in one neat and organized location. It was ok that access was only available during set school hours and never over the summer. Times have changed and now the filing cabinet sits as an ancient relic occasionally used to store party supplies for the holidays.

Here are some tools that are not retiring, but are very close to announcing their retirement; email, scanners, textbooks, desktop computers, single student desk, and the classroom.

The composition notebook. I just had to look it up because I seriously forgot what it was called! lol

I used to ask all my Science students to buy two of them. More than half way through the year we'd switch to the second one as the first was falling apart and pretty full. There's a whole movement in Science around notebooking that is due for retirement. This year I only asked students to buy one composition notebook and we're barely using them! If we retire them then I would have five free cubbies!

Great list! I wholeheartedly agree. I would add notebooks in general to this list. I know for most that even a small notebook and pen can be handy but I just think that using an iPad or even an iPhone for quick notes is a better and greener option.

I agree with a document camera that is pretty much a webcam on a stick, but the SMART 330 doc cam lets you do mixed reality 3D manipulation of any Google 3D image and all the 3D objects they offer on SMART Exchange. #lovethatone

I can't get behind ditching the doc camera. Sure, if you're just displaying paper, what's the point? But if you're demonstrating how to dissect a frog to a class of 30 who can't all crowd around to watch - and then taking a screen grab and circling and labeling the organs with interactive tools - then you've begun to use the camera the way it was meant to be used. Plus, you can record your demonstration and save it for kids who were absent. Sounds like a tool for a paperless classroom!

I agree with Teacher Kate! I teach at a very low-income school and we would love all of your old stuff. We use our pencil sharpeners and hole punch every day!That being said, we still manage to get some good exciting paperless things done: today with donated netbooks we created comics on Pixton (which we printed out) and edited our class blog. I guess this is a slightly modified definition of "blended education" :)

I understand that my situation is unique and that giving up a doc camera is hard to believe, but in my ELA room, it is time for it to go. The class set of iPads has allowed me to do things I never thought possible and the info I'm getting from the pilot will be helpful for my district.

If I could give away my doc cam, trust me, I would. It will find a good home with another teacher in my district.

I understand that my situation is unique and that giving up a doc camera is hard to believe, but in my ELA room, it is time for it to go. The class set of iPads has allowed me to do things I never thought possible and the info I'm getting from the pilot will be helpful for my district.

If I could give away my doc cam, trust me, I would. It will find a good home with another teacher in my district.

Maybe I cans till keep the filing cabinet, it can actually go around my house. I don't know, keeping things up to the smallest has been in my blood ever since. I'm not even sure if you can call it recycling, but as long as I can use you, you're still in.-Kieran